Dana White in Belgrade: “First time I’ve seen flares”
Speaking minutes after the card ended, the UFC boss said he had never seen flares at one of his shows, confirmed the promotion will come back to Serbia and tied Uros Medic's next step to the rankings.
The cage was already empty and the crowd was filing out of Belgrade Arena when Dana White sat down behind the press table and pulled the UFC microphone toward him. The backdrop behind his shoulder still carried the names Medic and Rodriguez. It was a few minutes past 10.15 p.m. on Saturday, August 1, and the card that had started at 4 p.m. had been over just long enough for the bonus money to be counted.
The first question nobody in this country was going to skip had nothing to do with any fight. It was about the stands.
He had never seen flares at a UFC show
Asked whether he had ever seen lit flares in the crowd at one of his events, the UFC chief executive said he had not, and then made his feelings plain.
“This is the first time I have seen flares. Thank God, but I hope I never see them again.”
He said it without irritation and without leaving any room for interpretation. The UFC sells its shows as a television product with a controlled picture, and pyrotechnics inside a closed arena are a safety matter for the venue and the security staff rather than for the fight promotion. The fact that White managed to praise the moment and ask for it never to happen again in the same breath says a lot about how the company reads the supporter culture in this part of Europe.
The return to Serbia, this time with the job done
Before the card, White had already said Belgrade would not be a one-off stop, as we reported at the time. The difference is that back then it was a pitch, and now it is a verdict delivered after the work was finished. The question came again at the table, and the answer was short.
“Yes, we will absolutely come back to Serbia.”
No date was attached. The UFC locks its calendar in waves and European stops are usually confirmed a few months out, so this is a promise of direction rather than of a slot.
What exactly did White promise Uros Medic?
Nothing specific, and that is the most telling part of the night. Uros Medic stopped Daniel Rodriguez in the main event in roughly 30 seconds, and White described what he had watched.
“I do not know how anything could be more impressive than what he did. He hit him with the first punch, then a few more on the ground, and finished the fight.”
Then came the part fighters listen to more carefully than any compliment.
“He has the most knockouts in his division and he is third for first-round knockouts. If he climbs the rankings, then we can talk about that. He is heading in a very good direction.”
Star billing, in other words, is not granted for one night. It is tied to a table. The statistic itself, incidentally, is being reported in two different ways: one outlet has Medic leading his division with the third-most first-round knockouts, another frames it as the most first-round knockouts in the lightweight division and the third-longest streak of first-round finishes. The official version will only settle when the UFC publishes its updated rankings, which happens on the Tuesday after a card.
The numbers he brought to the table
White offered the attendance and programme figures himself.
“The best fights were Sterling, Medic and Urbina. There were 18,623 fans in the building, we broke the Arena record.”
He added that the card had produced “the most finishes ever at a single UFC event”, which for a company that sells an evening on finished fights is a better line than anything marketing could write. The performance bonuses went to three men:
- Uros Medic, for the main-event stoppage
- Gilbert Urbina, who was done in about a minute
- Navajo Stirling, for his stoppage of Jan Blachowicz
Alongside White, Aleksandar Rakic and Medic took seats in front of the reporters. Rakic had won his fight on the scorecards after three rounds.
One concrete number is worth keeping until next time: 18,623. When the UFC decides where it goes in Europe next season, that figure will argue its case better than any quote given at half past ten at night. Medic has a cleaner assignment, and it is not to be popular. It is to move up the list.
